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Welcome to the artissimo.gr pages of News ! |
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English Language : Music Technology : News : Spring 2004 
Sunday 16 May 2004 : Tribute to old synthesizers |
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Experiences They are placed permanently near the door of every music studio - all of them being unused and virtually speechless looking at and being jealous of the more modern digital beasts. Their kingdom has been gone years ago ; now, they are rather a kind of furniture and not a living part of the studio. All of them are raising lots of memories : the restless adolescence, the sudden peculiar inspirations, the unsuccessful love songs, the unfulfilled expectations in general.  Usually dearly paid, long ago having been surpassed by more advanced technological innovations, still have music potential to give us, but - alas - taking it from them is almost always a much more time-consuming and less effective task than simply using the modern stuff. So, they are eventually ignored and put aside. Moreover, a good software sampler can imitate them in a most convincing way, isn't it the case ? And yet, old synthesizers are a permanent (even though perhaps last) resort to deep and genuine inspiration lines. There is something special about them : time has turned them into a living legend : every note is a word, every chord is a sentence, every phrase is an old story like the ones that sea dogs are usually narrating. Suddenly, you are listening to tales about dragons and fairies, good and bad kings struggling and brave gentlemen saving poor ladies. These goodies cannot be rejected without serious thought : remember that our epoch is not inspiring any more, computers and technology in general are taking control of everything and automation is constantly killing the inspiration and the elegance of clever thought. So, a restless mind is slowly turning again to them : powering them on and making them sing their own songs - all of them beautifully sounding - and then just allowing the inspiration to fly and reach new worlds that are simply the old ones transformed by our latent but continuous musical wisdom. Their number of sound generators may be low, their signal to noise ratio may be annoying, their effect section performance may be degraded, but, after all, you are a musician - not a soung engineer, aren't you !? Look at them, they are placed permanently in the corner and waiting for you just to give you everything ! Can you resist ? I cannot. |
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